The High School Boys' Training Hike Part 42

"It is 'on the cheap,'" d.i.c.k called out pleasantly. "And yet, our trip hasn't been such a very cheap one, either, and we've earned all the money ourselves. I don't suppose, Drayne, you ever earned as much money in your life."

"I don't have to," scoffed Phin Drayne. "My father is able to supply me with whatever money I need."

"Why!" uttered Dan Dalzell. "Our old Drayne is just another Timmy Hinman of the regular kind, isn't he?"

Dan looked so comical when he made this observation that his five chums burst into a shout of gleeful laughter.

Phin Drayne didn't relish that very sincere laughter. Though he didn't understand the allusion, he suspected that he was being made the b.u.t.t of a joke by d.i.c.k & Co.

"Drive on, George," he requested his friend at the wheel. "One hates to be seen in the company of such fellows."

The car's speed was let out several notches, and shot down the road ahead of d.i.c.k & Co.'s plain little caravan.

"Now that I think of it," d.i.c.k declared, "Phin is just another edition of Timmy Hinman, isn't he? And so are quite a good many of the fellows we know. The world must be nearly as full of Timmy Hinmans as it is of fathers either wealthy or well-to-do. I'd hate to belong to the Timmy Hinman crowd!"

"As for me," sighed Tom comically, "I don't see any chance of my becoming a Timmy until I'm able to do it on money acc.u.mulated for myself."

As Phin Drayne was still in Gridley High School, and had an overweening idea of himself as a football player, it is extremely likely that we shall hear of him again, for which reason, if for no other, we may as well dismiss him from these present pages.

A few more days of earnest hiking, followed by restful sleep in camp at night, brought d.i.c.k & Co., one fine afternoon toward the end of August, in sight of the spires of Gridley.

"There's the good old town!" called d.i.c.k, first to reach the rise of ground from which the view of Gridley was to be had.

"Good old town, indeed!" glowed Dave Darrin.

"Whoop!" shouted Tom Reade irrepressibly. "Whoop! And then---whoop!"

Dalzell, as he stood still for a few moments, gazing ahead, grinned broadly.

"He thinks his native town is a joke!" called Greg Holmes reproachfully.

"No," replied Dalzell, with a solemn shake of his head. "I am the joke, and it's on Gridley for being my native town."

"I'm glad to be back---when I get there," announced Hazy. "I shall be glad, even if for nothing more than the chance to rest my feet."

"Nonsense!" d.i.c.k retorted. "You'll be out on Main Street, to-night, ready to tramp miles and miles, if anything amusing turns up."

At the first shade by the roadside d.i.c.k &. Co. halted for fifteen minutes to rest.

"Now, each one of you do a little silent thinking," Prescott urged.

"Give us the topic, then," proposed Reade.

"Fellows," d.i.c.k went on, mounting a stump and thrusting one hand inside his flannel shirt, in imitation of the pose of an orator, "the next year will be an eventful one for all of us. In that time we shall wind up our courses at the Gridley High School.

From the day that we set forth from Gridley High School we shall be actively at work creating our careers. We are destined to become great men, everyone of us!"

"Tell that to the Senate!" mocked Tom Reade.

"Well, then," d.i.c.k went on, accepting the doubt of their future greatness, "we shall, at least, if we are worth our salt, become useful men in the world, and I don't know but that is very close to being great. For the man who isn't useful in the world has no excuse for living. Now, in a little more than another hour, we shall be treading the pavements of good old Gridley. Let us do it with a sense of triumph."

"Triumph?" quizzed Tom soberly. "What about?"

"The sense of triumph," d.i.c.k retorted, "will arise from the fact that this is to be the last and biggest year in which we are to give ourselves the final preparation for becoming either great or useful men. I'm not going to say any more on this subject.

Perhaps you fellows think I've been talking nonsense on purpose.

I haven't. Neither have I tried to preach to you, for preaching is out of my line. But, fellows, I hope you all feel, as solemnly as I do myself, just what this next year must mean to us in work, in study---in a word, in achievement. It won't do any of us any harm, once in a while to feel solemn, for five seconds at a time, over what we are going to do this year to a.s.sure our futures."

For once Tom Reade didn't have a jest ready. For once Dalzell forgot to grin.

The march was taken up again. The next halt was made in Gridley, thus ending their long training hike, the boys going to their respective homes.

"Just give three silent cheers, and we won't startle anyone,"

Tom proposed.

"We went out on the trip to harden ourselves," murmured Dave, "and I must admit that we have all done it."

That evening d.i.c.k and Harry Hazelton drove the horse and wagon over to Tottenville, where the camp wagon was returned to its owner, Mr. Newbegin t.i.tmouse.

"You young men have worn this wagon quite: a bit," whined Mr.

t.i.tmouse, after he had painstakingly inspected the wagon by the light of a lantern.

"I think we've brought it back in fine condition, sir," replied d.i.c.k, and he spoke the truth. "The wagon looks better, Mr. t.i.tmouse, than you had expected to see it."

"You owe me about five dollars for extra wear and tear," insisted the money-loving Mr. t.i.tmouse.

But he didn't get the money. Again d.i.c.k Prescott turned out to be an excellent business man. d.i.c.k was most courteous, but he refuted all of Mr. t.i.tmouse's claims for extra payment, in the end even such a money-grubber as Mr. Newbegin t.i.tmouse gave up the effort to extort more money for the use of his wagon than was his due. He even used his lantern to light the boys through the dark side alley to the street where the trolley car ran.

Two or three times after this d.i.c.k and his friends heard from Tom Drake. That young workman never repeated his earlier error.

In time he paid for his home, then began the saving of money for other purposes. To-day Drake owns his own machine shop and is highly prosperous.

Old Reuben Hinman lingered many days between life and death.

At last he recovered, and in time was discharged from the hospital.

However, his first attempts to run the peddler's wagon again revealed the fact that the peddler's days on the road were over. He was no longer strong enough for the hard outdoor life.

Timothy Hinman and his sisters came forward when the Overseers of the Poor began to look into the peddler's affairs. These dutiful children wanted to be sure to obtain whatever might be their share of their father's belongings.

Timothy and his sisters obtained their full shares---nothing.

The Overseers of the Poor found that they could effect an arrangement by which the peddler's home, his horse and wagon, stock and good will could be sold for four thousand dollars.

This was done. With half the money Reuben Hinman was able to purchase his way into a home for old men. Here he will be maintained, without further expense, as long as he lives, and he will live in a degree of comfort amounting, with this simple-minded ex-peddler, to positive luxury.

The other two thousand dollars, at the suggestion of the Overseers of the Poor, was spent in buying an annuity from a life insurance company. This annuity provides ample spending money for Reuben Hinman whenever, in fine weather, he wishes to go forth from the home and enjoy himself in the world at large.

Timothy has been forced to go to work as a valet. The daughters tearfully support themselves as milliners. Reuben Hinman long ago spent the ten dollars received from Lawyer Stark.

The tramp who accepted work from Dr. Hewitt made good in every sense of the word. In fact he did so well that, in time, he took unto himself a wife and is now the head of a family, which lives in a little cottage built on Dr. Hewitt's estate. The name of "Jim Joggers" has given way to the real name of that former knight of the road. However, as the man is sensitive about his idle past, we prefer to remember him as "Joggers."